This
is my ESCI 1/48 A-4N Skyhawk II.
Construction
Although
this kit is boxed as an N version, the canopy and windscreen represent an
“H” version, as they have the flatter shape of the earlier version and the
intakes seem to have the narrower shape of the “H” as well.
Due to the age of the kit, some of the engineering is not up to today’s
standards. Since there were no
locating pins or holes for the bombs on the centerline multiple ejector rack, on
the bombs themselves, or for the 30mm DEFA cannons, I had to do some
scratchbuilding in those areas using brass wire for the pins and drilling the
holes using my mini-drill. The
IsraDecal book on the IAF A-4 Skyhawk (an outstanding book) was an indispensable
reference when aligning the cannons on the undersides of the wings. I
also drilled out the cannon barrels. Sheet
plastic was used to simulate the chaff dispensers on the underside of the rear
fuselage, with the holes being drilled out again using my mini-drill.
Due to the small size of the chaff dispensers, it was difficult to get
all the holes to line up evenly with one another, but I hope I created the look
satisfactorily. There
was quite a gap where the horizontal tail planes met the vertical plane so I
used some plastic strip and putty to fill in the area.
Also, the actuators for the slats and corresponding holes were not
engineered well and I had to open up the holes quite a bit to insert the
actuators. The actuators for the
outer edge of the slats were molded with way too high of an angle and, as a
result, were a real pain to fit into the holes.
The starboard slat still bows a little on the outer edge because of this.
The
only aftermarket parts I used was a cockpit set from Cutting Edge (# CEC48279)
which consisted of an ejection seat, instrument panel, and mechanism behind the
seat, as the kit seat was not very good and the instrument panel just consisted
of a decal. I used the kit decals
for the side consoles since the Cutting Edge set didn’t include consoles.
The set is designed for the Hasegawa kit but fit the ESCI kit perfectly.
To simulate the hydraulic lines on the nose landing gear lift/retract
cylinder and main gear struts and rear area of the wells, I used copper wire for
the lines and lead foil for the retaining straps.
To keep the model on its nose, I inserted weights in front of the nose
gear wheel well and in the tips of the underwing fuel tanks, as this model is a
real “tail-sitter”.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Painting
Model Master Enamels
were used for the three-tone upper camouflage and underside color.
Using the IsraDecal book, I expanded the drawings to 1/48 scale and cut
out a paper mask for the upper surface colors.
For a mask I first sprayed the tan color freehand and then masked and
sprayed the brown and green tones respectively.
Each color was lightened with some flat white after spraying the base
coat to give a faded look to the finish. Since
I lifted the mask slightly off the surface to achieve a soft edge to the colors,
some of the brown and green got underneath the mask (I call this “underspray”),
which I touched-up by with some drybrushing.
The red areas for the leading edge wing slats and intakes and the black
cannon blast areas and nose tip were masked and sprayed prior to spraying the
camouflage and lower surface areas. The
red outlines on the landing gear well doors were done using a red Sharpie
marker.
In painting the
wheels, I first sprayed them flat black. I
then cut a piece of drafting tape and laid it over the wheel so that it covered
the hub. Using a scribing tool, I
kept outlining the hub gently until the tape separated so that I had a mask that
covered the wheel and exposed the hub. I
then drybrushed the hub using Testors flat white until the desired look was
achieved. The windscreen and canopy
were painted with a brush, dipped in Future and allowed to dry overnight.
The canopy was glued on using super glue, and the windscreen was glued on
using Elmer’s glue.
Weathering
& Decaling
I chose not to
highlight the upper surface panel lines as the panel lines on the kit’s
fuselage are very deep and most of the photographs in the IsraDecal book show
the upper surfaces as being quite clean. For
the cockpit, undersurfaces, multiple ejector rack, pylons, landing gear, wheel
wells, and landing gear well doors, I used an oil wash of ivory black.
The cockpit also received some drybrushing using the base colors mixed
with flat white while the Mk. 82/500 lb. bombs received an acrylic wash of Model
Master flat black followed by some light drybrushing.
The wheel treads were drybrushed using Humbrol panzer gray and Testors
flat white.
I
used the kit decals which worked out okay.
The decals include a ficticous squadron badge for the tail so I had to
turn to my favorite local hobby shop for an inexpensive aftermarket sheet.
Well, as luck would have it, they found an old Microscale sheet (#48-70)
that included squadron badges in 1/48 scale for a host of Israeli aircraft
including the Skyhawk, Phantom, Mirage, C-47, Kfir
and F-15 for the huge sum of…$6.00.
I’m not sure how old this sheet is, but it recommended my ESCI kit and
the Monogram kit for the A-4 model and, for the Mirage kit, it noted that the
Heller kit would be on the market in a few months!
The decals included yellow stripes for the bombs but I decided to paint
those on instead. Red stripes were
also included for the LAU-3/19 rocket pods but they didn’t settle on the pods
very well so I discarded them. Testors
Micro Set and Champ Setting Solution were used to apply the decals.
The
model represents an A-4N Skyawk II as flown by the Dragon Squadron of the
Israeli Air Force during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973.
Happy
Modeling!
Rick
References:
·
McDonnell
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk (Aircraft of the Israeli Air Force Vol. 3) Ra’anan Weiss
and
Yoav Efrati
, IsraDecal Publications 2001
·A-4
Skyhawk, Combat Aircraft Series, Osprey Publishing 1987
Click on
images below to see larger images
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